Substrate holders such as electrostatic clamps are used widely for many manufacturing processes including semiconductor manufacturing, solar cell manufacturing, and processing of other components. Many substrate holders provide for substrate heating as well as substrate cooling in order to process a substrate at a desired temperature. Electrostatic clamps exhibit multiple different failure mechanisms when operated at elevated temperature, such as 400° C. or higher. For one, undesirable metal contamination may occur when metallic elements that are present in a dielectric portion of the electrostatic clamp are leached from the dielectric portion and enter an adjacent substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer.
Another failure mechanism involves electromigration when the metal material within a clamping electrode of the electrostatic clamp becomes mobile. This may lead to an increase in clamp current, and ultimately cause the clamping force that is applied to a substrate to decrease.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present improvements have been needed.